Blog

A quick overview Last weekend Vibrant Lives premiered three new sculptures commissioned by the Mesa Arts Center. The sculptures, created in collaboration with local artist Bobby Zokaites, were designed to give people a larger-scale experience of real time data shed than we had done in previous events. We consciously chose materials and shapes that would invite bodies to lay, stand, sit, and stretch across the pieces, allowing people to locate […]

I’m delighted that we are officially now in full swing with our new graduate certificate in Computational and Digital Humanities here at ASU. While I’m the current director, this has been a labor of love for many here at ASU, including fabulous folks like Michael Simeone, Alex Halavais, Jacqueline Hettel, and the amazing administrative staff in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies where the CDH is housed. The CDH […]

May 21st and 22nd, 2016 Vibrant Lives will be presenting in “Handmade Amplified” in Amsterdam (more precisely, my amazing collaborators Jessica Rajko and Eileen Standley will be presenting their work). This iteration of our research will be realized as a durational performance/installation; a play with potent points of technological and analog dialogue through and of the body. Presented in the 4Bid Gallery as performance and installation of sculpture, photos, and a web […]

I’ve been working lately with the Vibrant Lives team on performative, haptic approaches to understanding data. This first took the form of our Vibrant Lives performance this fall at ASU’s Fall Forward showcase. Since then, we’ve been playing around with lots of different modalities for engaging with data and we’ve been talking a lot – mostly amongst ourselves, but also with folks who have been attending HSCollab’s “Critical Conversations” lunchtime […]

Vibrant Lives will be premiering three unique, interactive sculptures at the Spark! Mesa Festival of Creativity, in Mesa, AZ March 18 – 19, 2016 (12pm – 10pm). Our sculptures were constructed in partnership with local sculptor, Bobby Zokaites, and are designed to give festival-goers a sense of their real-time “data shed.” We will also be holding improvisatory performances both nights of the festival. The sculptures use festival-goers’ mobile phone data to produce touch-based […]

I’ve written a chapter for a forthcoming collection on history of early modern science and I was just asked to write up the abstract for said piece. In writing, I found myself pretty jazzed about the piece and thought I’d share at least the abstract with you all. I’m particularly tickled by the way the chapter harmonizes with work I’m doing right now on my book, which is all about […]

As part of the FemTechNet signal/noise conference this April in Ann Arbor, MI the Vibrant Lives team will be presenting DataPlay. Participants in the DataPLAY will engage with a set of interactive sculptures that we are currently developing that will offer a range of haptic engagements with data. Included in this will be the Vibrant app, which uses participant’s mobile phone data to produce touch-based (haptic) feedback. Infrasonic subwoofers placed within the […]

Time is magical. Time to think, talk, and play. Time with movement, sunshine, and one another. Of all the resources that I need in order to do my work, the one I need most is time. In general, I can use more of this magical thing called time. But this post isn’t about lack, it’s about a brief window of abundance. The Human Security Collaboratory, which I co-founded this year […]

As is my way, I’ve been working with a few folks on another shared bibliography – this time on wearables and algorithmic culture. I’m pleased that our reading list includes of number of important pieces/books by women and I thought I’d share it with others. Blogs/Forums Can computers be racist? Big data, inequality, and discrimination / Ford Foundation Critical Algorithmic Studies reading list Articles/Books Abbate, Janet. Inventing the Internet […]

Jamia Wilson, Latoya Peterson, and I had a great conversation earlier this year about an idea: “intersectional data.” We have recently returned to the idea and the time for me to write a bit about it is growing close. As a way of working toward that end, this is an idea gathering post. If you have items to share, please let me know! From our previous conversations: Intersectional Data Manifesto While we […]